One of the most powerful miniseries I've ever experienced, HBO's CHERNOBYL plunges you directly into the greatest man-made disaster in world history. Spread over five episodes, it's gripping from its very first moments, presenting tragedy on an unimaginable scale, hidden by a now extinct Soviet regime that could never admit failure on any scale. There are NO weak episodes among the five, with each highlighting a distinct part of the story. We open with a quiet scene featurin

They don't make movie stars like Robert Redford anymore. In 1984, four years after his last film "Brubaker", Redford returned to the screen in THE NATURAL . Beautifully shot, leisurely paced and set to Randy Newman's all-time great music score, it's a baseball fable that spans decades. The film opens with young Roy Hobbs (Redford) on his way to Chicago to play with the Cubs. There are glimpses of amazing talent and an anxious departure for the big city. But the story doesn't

Packed with wall-to-wall laughs, action and gore, READY OR NOT 2: HERE I COME is a hilarious & twisted horror sequel that does not demand you've seen the first film, I haven't! But I'm going to make a point of seeing it now. A very game cast, young & established, deliver a bloody entertaining good time. The film picks up right where the first entry ended, with Grace (Samara Weaving from "Babylon" and "Scream VI") emerging victorious from a lethal game that her new in-laws sp

A complete cinematic train wreck, THE BRIDE! is an unwatchable, boring, moronic, self-important mess that starts badly and goes downhill from there. It's a good thing Jessie Buckley won an Oscar last weekend for "Hamnet", because she's horrible here, overacting so badly she makes Jack Nicholson in "The Shining" look monstrously reserved. To be fair to Buckley, Director Maggie Gyllenhaal is responsible for this mess. There is "swinging for the fences" and then there's this, a

A feast for the eyes and the ears in Dolby Cinema, PROJECT HAIL MARY aims for the stars and beautifully blows past them by every measure. Adapting Andy Weir's best selling novel, Oscar winning Directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller have created a science fiction film for the ages. If you're old enough (like me) to have seen "2001" and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" on the big screen when they were released, get ready to have that same sense of wonder again in the th

As we get ready to watch the latest Andy Weir adaption, "Project Hail Mary" this evening, let's take a look back at my review of "The Martian" , the film adaption of Weir's first novel in 2015. When you look at Ridley Scott's three films within the Science Fiction film canon of the past 40 years, "Alien", "Blade Runner" and even (arguably) "Prometheus" stand out as modern film classics. Let's add another one to that group with 2015's THE MARTIAN . Based on first-time novelis

It all comes down to the music in the 1976 remake of A STAR IS BORN starring Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson. This was one of Barbra's first efforts as producer/actress and she and then boyfriend (and hairdresser) Jon Peters throw it all at the screen in their version of the oft-told story of a rising and a falling star in love. Kristofferson oozes rock star charisma as John Norman Howard, hit maker, alcoholic and wild man. After a drunken, angry concert one night,

Alan Alda not only wrote THE SEDUCTION OF JOE TYNAN , he stars as the title character, a hardworking senator with Presidential ambitions. His life is about to get a lot more complicated. After passing a long talked about jobs bill, Tynan's stock in Washington soars. He suddenly finds himself leading the opposition against a Supreme Court nominee with a very racist past. The lead champion of that same nominee is long-time friend Senator Birney, well played by Melvyn Douglas, w

Jason Statham has become one of our most reliable action heroes, turning out one enjoyable popcorn action flick after another. His latest, SHELTER is no exception. Statham again reminds me of Charles Bronson in the seventies, who delivered a reliable action flick like "The Mechanic" or "Mr Majestyk" every 8 months or so. The difference is that Statham's thrillers have $50 million budgets that deliver grand scale action and thrills on a level Bronson only dreamed about. This

We've all heard of the perfect crime. CRIME 101 is the perfect crime film. It's early in 2026, but I think it will be hard for any film this year to top this slick, intricately constructed mystery thriller. The best of its kind since Pierce Brosnan's "The Thomas Crown Affair" in 1999, CRIME 101 pulls you into four characters that will eventually collide on screen. Chris Hemsworth is excellent as James, a meticulous & mysterious jewel thief executing a precisely planned seri